Petwrap Ransomware Virus Removal

If you landed on this page, you probably have just been infected with Petwrap Ransomware – a ransomware cryptovirus, which can secretly encrypt your files and keep it hostage for ransom. The text that you are about to read below will give you an idea about the danger level of this infection and the possible methods to counteract it. We will tell you the most common features and tricky blackmail tactics that this type of Ransomware threats usually uses and the typical distribution methods it implements. There is also a free removal guide, which is supposed to help you remove Petwrap Ransomware from your system and potentially assist you to recover some of your files.

You are dealing with a nasty type of software and you should know it!

What we are going to tell you now may not sound very relieving, but it will give you a good idea about the severity of the problem that you are facing. Ransomware, in general, is a malicious type of software with a very bad reputation and quite harmful capabilities. In fact, it is recently considered by most of the security experts as one of the worst online threats that is currently available on the web. Petwrap Ransomware is just a threat of this type, and the idea of its creation is to bring to its criminal creators income through a ruthless blackmail scheme. What we have in mind here the ability of Petwrap Ransomware to apply a secret algorithm on the users’ files and keep them locked unless a fat amount of money is paid as a ransom. Usually, the infection happens thanks to a Trojan horse script or some other malicious transmitter (such as contaminated web content, ads, spam messages, misleading links, etc.) that delivers the Ransomware inside. Once inside, it immediately renders the victim’s data unreadable and prevents it from being opened by any program. The final stage of the attack is the appearance of a scary ransom note somewhere on the user’s screen, where the hackers, who stand behind the infection, place their ransom demands. Sadly, there are not many ways to counteract the Ransomware encryption and its consequences and the hackers usually offer you to purchase a special decryption key from them, which is marketed as the only solution that can help you recover your files from the encryption.

Is it a good idea to pay the ransom?

To start with, let’s think a bit about the options you have if Petwrap Ransomware attacks you. It is very normal for the hackers to start to threaten you in various ways in order to make you pay the ransom. However, if you have lost access to your data, don’t lose hope quicjkly and don’t act impulsively out of fear. Paying what the hackers want will in no way guarantee the release of the files from the malicious encryption. The criminals may still not send you a decryption key no matter how strictly you fulfill their demands and the risk of losing your money in vain is real. Furthermore, such action is a direct sponsorship of their criminal practice, so most of the security experts will definitely not advise you to take such course of action.

What we can suggest you as an alternative is to try to counteract the Ransomware with whatever other options are available. One such option is the removal guide below, which is supposed to assist you in removing Petwrap Ransomware and all of its traces from your system. You can use its instructions to detect and delete the infection, but we need to warn you that the removal of the Ransomware may not free your files from the encryption. Not everything is lost though. If you have file backups, you can use them to recover at least some of your data or you can try to extract the files with the help of the file-restoration instructions included in our guide. The ransom payment should be your last option.

Some tips on prevention and removal of Ransomware threats:

Getting rid of such a horrifying infection like Petwrap Ransomware from your system and overcoming its negative effects may not be very easy. However, giving a try to the solutions, presented in our removal guide, will surely do you no harm. Pay attention to its instructions and carefully read all the steps. For future protection, we highly recommend you to create file backups of your most important data and to ensure a better safety for your system by installing a reliable antivirus and avoiding shady and sketchy content.

Petwrap Ransomware Virus Removal

Prior to starting to execute the steps from the guide, we advise you to either bookmark this page or open it on a separate device since throughout the process of completing the guide, you might need to exit your browser.

1: Restoring basic Windows functionality

Before you are able to remove the Petwrap Ransomware Virus from your computer you need to be able to access it in the first place. Since the ransomware will prevent Windows from booting itself your first job is to repair the Master Boot Records (MBR) of your drive.

To do that you’ll need your original Windows OS DVD (or an USB bootable drive for advanced users)

Insert the DVD (or the USB) into the computer, then run the computer and choose to boot the OS from the DVD/USB. You may have to change Windows boot priorities from the bios by pressing Del

Your Windows OS should now be able to boot normally. You can proceed with the removal of the virus as usual.

2: Spotting the process

Open your Task Manager using the Ctrl + Shift + Esc key combination. Next, go to the processes tab and carefully look through the list for any shady entries. Usually, malicious processes will be consuming large amounts of CPU and RAM and will either have no description or will have a suspicious-looking one.

Once you identify the virus’ process, right-click on it and select Open File Location. Delete everything in the folder that opens if you are sure that the process was malicious. If you are not sure, contact us in the comments.

Go back to the Task Manager and end the potentially harmful process.

3: Hosts file IP’s

Go to your start menu and in the search field, paste the following address: notepad %windir%/system32/Drivers/etc/hosts. Select the first result and look at the bottom of the newly opened notepad file. See if there are any IP’s below “Localhost” and tell us in the comments if there were any IP addresses.

4: System Configuration Startup Programs

Type System Configuration in the Windows search bar and open the first result. Go to the Startup tab and take a look at the list of startup programs (on Windows 10, the Startup programs can be seen in the Startup Section of the Task Manager). If any of them look shady or have unknown manufacturer or a manufacturer with a sketchy name, uncheck those entries and click on OK.

5: Registry

Open the Run window (WinKey + R), type regedit and press Enter. Once the Registry Editor opens, press Ctrl + F and type the name of the virus. Select Find Next and delete whatever gets found that has the virus’ name. Do that with all search results.

6: Deleting potential virus files

Open the Start Menu and separately type each of the following locations: %AppData% %LocalAppData% %ProgramData% %WinDir% %Temp% . Open each of those folders and sort their contents by date. Delete the most recent files and folders. When you open the Temp folder, delete everything in it.